Anyone using Buchanan Street bus station in Glasgow is familiar with the work of the sculptor George Wylie whether they know it or not since the running man clock that they pass on the way out or in is his work. 

Although he had a sense of humour I don't think he intended the different faces to show different times.  That's somebody's poor maintenance.  As someone who travels by bus between Glasgow and Edinburgh relatively often I have noticed that the clocks on the buses seldom show the right time.  Not important in itself but it does make you wonder if the same lack of attention is paid to the bits that keep the bus functioning safely.

But that is by way of a digression or a little moan on the side.

A while ago I went to Glasgow to see an exhibition of Wylie's work but a gang of four lunch morphed seamlessly into an afternoon of conviviality and I never got to it.  Yesterday there were but two of us and we were determined on the exhibition.  Not so determined mind you as to remain in the first restaurant we picked on discovering that it didn't serve alcohol.

We went round the corner and enjoyed a responsible modicum of vino with, in my case, crispy pork belly on noodles with mango and chilli.  The noodles were stone cold but on enquiry I discovered they were meant to be.  It was a variation on sweet and sour I suppose.  But notwithstanding it was delicious and the chilli brought my belly up to the same temperature as the pig's.

The exhibition was excellent.  His sense of humour was well displayed with items like this rock music:

and his skill in bending metal as in this pipe band:

There was a lot about the straw locomotive and the paper boat that brought the social consciousness of much of his work to wide public attention in the 80s.  The exhibition runs until February 2nd and I recommend it but if you can't make it, go to Glasgow anyway just for the pleasure of gazing at the ceiling in the Mitchell Library.  It's magnificent.